Ed O'Neill

“I always wanted to work with David Milch.”

“All this flying around got on my nerves. But then I gave the script to Cathy to get her opinion. When she started to laugh, it was like 'That's it!'. I went to LA and I got the part.”

“I took a plane from New York City to Los Angeles for an audition. I met all the people. After that, I was told to have another audition, but I didn't want to go there again.”

“My goal was never to win awards. Mine was let me get to a place where I don't have to work. I don't have to do anything I don't want to.”

“When you come from where I come from, you're trying to get approval for something - you don't know what.”

“I'm glad I did 'Married... with Children,' and I liked making all that money, and we all had a lot of laughs.”

“I've always considered myself one of the luckiest guys.”

“In terms of comedians, I loved, growing up, Jonathan Winters, Sid Caesar, Jackie Gleason, Phil Silvers, Carol Burnett, all those people.”

“I was with the Steelers, and I got cut, and I remember, when I left, I was relieved.”

“I was very slender and small. All my friends were on the team, so I had to make it too. I was a very aggressive player. I wanted to be one of the best, but I just ended up as one of the good ones.”

“I auditioned for 'The Rainmaker.' Nothing. I auditioned for 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.' Nothing. 'Antigone' was my big break. I got a part as a Roman guard. I carried a spear.”

“I was adrift for a while. I worked as a substitute teacher; I sold cars.”

“In high school, I got into a speech class run by a nun who used to put on plays. She put me in a oratorical competitive program. You would tell a story, and they were very corny, something like 'My Childhood Hero.' It was something out of 'Readers Digest.' I always thought it was too much and too dramatic.”

“I say I'm the best actor in America who's never done a movie.”

“Security was another reason. You never know what can happen to you when you earn a lot of money.”

“I got into television, and I'm a television guy, so I've never really had a movie career.”

“I was never a joke teller. I don't even like jokes, for the most part. I don't like to hear them, and rarely can I even remember one.”

“My paternal grandfather worked in the mill all his life. My father worked in the mill almost his whole life. I worked in the mill while I was going to college in the summers. And then, for one stretch, I quit school and worked one year.”

“I always found that drama, really good drama, has a lot of comedy in it.”

“'Married with Children,' we were good until the fifth or sixth season, and then we limped into the 11th season.”